This invention relates to multiple hypodermic needle syringe arrangements, more particularly, to a dual needle syringe for use in simultaneously injecting certain tissues in the penis, in connection with a method for alleviating and treating male impotence by aiding in producing, enhancing, and sustaining an erection of the penis.
The ability to attain and maintain an adequate erection has long been a problem to older men as well as to some younger men experiencing psychogenic or physiologic impotence due to various factors. This invention is the instrumentality used in connection with the first really viable solution to this problem, a solution involving no tourniquets, straps, bands, sleeves, or other supportive devices used in the past to aid in effecting an erection.
Whether the impotence is absolute (involving all sexual modalities), total (also affecting all sexual functions, though not necessarily libido), or partial (affecting the rigidity or duration of erection), or whether the cause of impotence is organic (due to structural changes, disease, or some demonstrable functional impairment anywhere in the sexual system), psychogenic (due to psychological factors such as depression or aversion to a particular sex partner), or physiologic (due to old age or sexual satiation), the result is the same: inability to engage in sexual activity due to the lack of an adequate erection. Impotence may be defined more fully, however, as the inability to develop or sustain an erection of the penis sufficient to conclude coitus or orgasm and ejaculation to the male's own satisfaction. Impotence treatment methods are generally, however, concerned with the erection aspect and not ejaculatory impotence, which is relatively rare. The penis becomes erect when certain tissues (e.g., the corpora cavernosa, 38 in FIG. 5) in the central portion of the penis become widely dilated with blood, thereby causing them to become less flaccid, and in turn causing an erection.
Many devices have been proposed for producing and enhancing an erection, typically by some means of exogenous nervous stimulation of the organ to produce an erection by, for example, local stimulation via vibration, or by blood constrictive devices such as adjustable tourniquet-like rubber band devices which are designed to fit tightly around the shaft of the penis and thereby restrict the flow of blood from the penis through the surface veins, as well as the deeper dorsal vein, to prolong an erection. For example, Atchley U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,948 discloses an adjustable device designed to fit the contour of the penis, to exert greater pressure on the area where the subcutaneous (surface) veins are located, thereby restricting the blood exiting the penis through the peripheral veins. Miller U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,855 is ineffective for depressing the deep dorsal vein and preventing or significantly restricting flow of blood there. There have been numerous other attempts to solve the problem, but all exhibit various disadvantages to the user, and sometimes to the female, such as extreme discomfort during intercourse, to the extent that users might not achieve the desired usefulness as frequently as and to the extent preferred. All the external devices previously proposed have the psychological disadvantage of being an impediment to the sex act, and the operational disadvantage that their duration of effectiveness is relatively short.
What is needed is a way to produce and enhance and even maintain an erection without the attendant difficulties inherent in a device or appliance that must be worn during intercourse. The subject invention, involving nothing which may be annoying or even apparent to the female sex partner, provides such a way be means of a dual needle hypodermic syringe used to inject certain drugs into the penis, thereby allowing for treatment of the tissues which really produce the erection--a significant improvement over treatment of the skin surface with creams or rubbing compounds. The dual needle arrangement is apparently desirable because of the need to inject the corpora cavernosa tissues.
The basic concept of the dual needle syringe is old, and numerous patents have been granted on various devices, for example, Horn U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,394, which discloses a dual hypodermic syringe with integrally molded barrels and independent plungers and needles, apparently of the conventional variety. The Horn device, like other known dual hypodermic syringes, is, however, not suitable for the purpose for which the subject invention is intended. While the spacing of the needles of the Horn '394 syringe could be adjusted to be optimum for the purpose of injecting the penis with an appropriate drug, there is no stop on the base of the barrels as in the subject invention, and the plungers are independently movable. Independently movable plungers will work in the subject invention, but are more difficult to handle. A dual hypodermic syringe for the purposes discussed herein, for use by the general public, should be easy and safe to use, and should be inexpensively manufacturable.
Multiple hypodermic syringe arrangements generally have the same basic characteristics: two (or more) needles which are essentially parallel to one another, and connected to spaced barrels in which plungers, generally independent of one another, are moved to force the fluid through the barrel and, in turn, the needle. The needle diameters and lengths vary, depending on the type of liquid to be injected and the tissue in which the liquid in each barrel is to be injected. For example, a short needle is used if the injection is to be subcutaneous, whereas a longer needle is used for an intramuscular injection, or in the case of the subject invention, an intra-corpora cavernosa injection. Where multiple injections are to be made in close areas, it's desirable to make the injections simultaneously, as the patient will experience only one sensation of pain if the distance between the two needles does not exceed the distance at which the surface pain sensors of the skin can distinguish between single and multiple locations of pain. The two-point sensation of pain distance varies over different parts of the body. In some parts of the body, for example, the thigh and upper arm, the two-point threshold of pain may involve a distance of up to 68 mm, whereas the two-point threshold of pain distance on the penis is much smaller, thus necessitating a very close needle arrangement. Needles as small as possible to pass the fluids to be injected should be used to minimize the pain.
The subject invention surpasses the general characteristics of these arrangements and is easy and safe to use, as the curved end member comfortably limits the depth of insertion of the needles, which are as close and as small as possible.